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Born to Russian parents and raised in Harlem, New York, Oleg Stavrowsky lived in Lago Vista, Texas, near Austin. Known for painting western subjects, Stavrowsky’s interest in Western art began in high school during World War II. After serving in the war, he became a technical illustrator for McDonnell Aircraft in St. Louis, Missouri. His career then expanded to include fashion illustration and other types of commercial art.

“I got through two years of high school, was drafted into the Armed Forces in 1945, and got honorably discharged as a staff sergeant in 1949. I fooled around with ten thousand incidental jobs, and finally when I was thirty, decided I liked graphics. I got a pretty good job as a technical illustrator. I was in Oklahoma City about ten years ago, decided to see what was in the Hall of Fame, and made up my mind I’d like to try that. I guess we all like cowboys and Indians. It was pretty good right from the start, and I’ve been at it ever since.” 

Stavrowsky’s visit to Oklahoma City and the Cowboy Hall of Fame changed his life. Inspired by what he saw, he gave up commercial art and went to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where he began to paint full-time.  His first year, he was in an exhibit at the Cowboy Hall of Fame. Stavrowsky was a realist painter of both the historic and contemporary American West.

Eventually, Stavrowsky settled in Texas, where he lived and painted for many years.  “One big factor in my life is jazz. When I paint, I am listening to music. Sixty-four bars of good saxophone are like four square inches of good brush licks on a canvas. Western painting is my life, my joy, my income, my everything.”